<p>Just wondering, is the raw UW GPA pretty much the deciding factor for Michigan's admissions? I've heard from several people on this site that it doesn't matter how hard your courseload is, only your GPA matters. Could there be some truth to this? Because a girl from my school got admitted several days ago with NO AP classes even though my HS offers 20+ and that was a huge surprise to me.</p>
<p>I don’t think that’s true… My GPA is low for Michigan (about a 3.7) but my course rigor was the most challenging, so I think that helped.</p>
<p>You usually won’t get in if you don’t challenge yourself. I doubt the girl you mentioned took “none,” maybe one or two. If she did get in without taking a challenging courseload then she is an exception to the rule.</p>
<p>that is absolutely NOT true. UofM definitely insists on having applicants who have a more challenging courseload, and the girl who got in with zero APs is probably just an exception to it. however we’ll never know what colleges definitively look for when they’re sifting through admissions, because they admit such a wide range of people with different rankings and accomplishments.</p>
<p>The claim that they don’t care at all about course rigor is false. The claims that they under or over compensate for course rigor are debatable. Either way, freshmen admission is highly random. You’re going to have a hard time guessing whether or not you should take harder classes (with the goal of maximizing chance of admission) based off of a few cases.</p>
<p>It’s mapped out pretty clearly on the PDF you can download from the admission site that shows the evaluation criteria used by the readers – and yes, your ‘score’ on the academic section is heavily influenced by course rigor, AND school track record/status, and class rank, and myriad OTHER variables beyond the gpa. But a reasonably high gpa is also expected unless you’re coming from a top national school or program known for grade deflation.</p>
<p>Guys lets all be honest with each other. WE DON’T KNOW WHAT MATTERS!!! </p>
<p>I’ve seen so many weird admission these days that I can’t tell you what colleges are looking for anymore. I’ve had friends rejected from Berkeley and accepted to Umich and vise versa with identical applications. I’ve had people with 30 ACT’s rejected from schools like UT Austin but accepted to schools like Cornell and Duke. I couldn’t tell you how many kids at Umich got a 26 on the ACT and got in with hundreds of kids with 31+ ACT get rejected. (Oh and I for one don’t think the ACT measures intellectual capacity or academic potential anyways, but just saying). </p>
<p>Seriously, WE DON’T KNOW! Just do your best at everything you think matters, stay confident, and hope for the best.</p>